


i could (for you)

by clearlykero



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 22:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15672948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearlykero/pseuds/clearlykero
Summary: in which natsuya, at 4am, starts a LINE conversation withdo you think if i give mikhail some more muscle mags he'll let me release a duet song with matsuoka. it's not about rin at all.





	i could (for you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kornevable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kornevable/gifts).



> for a sportsfest br4 [prompt](https://sportsfest.dreamwidth.org/11674.html?thread=2172314#cmt2172314). when can i ever resist idol aus?

Natsuya feels settled with Yamazaki in a way that he hasn't been since he and Nao were in middle school. With Nao there is always the element of regret, now, the faint taste of bitterness underscoring all their comfortable teasing. Nao has made his peace with what is, but Natsuya can't quite bring himself to let go of what could have been. The solo life is good for him, he likes constantly being on tour, he just— misses having someone at his back. He picks up his phone before he can let that line of thought get anywhere.

_ do you think if i give mikhail some more muscle mags he'll let me release a duet song with matsuoka,  _ he types, and sends to Nao. Who is probably sleeping at this ungodly hour of the night.

Running into Yamazaki again hadn't been in the plan. Natsuya is just at the onsen on break between his schedules, but Yamazaki had been filming for a period drama. He'd been all made up and looking sharp as a knife, even though it wasn't an important role. Natsuya bets the stylists had a field day dressing him. Natsuya would— 

His phone trills, and he snatches it up embarrassingly quickly. 

_ Just tell me what's wrong,  _ Nao has typed,  _ it's entirely too late at night for me to decipher your messages.  _ Natsuya frowns at his screen. Nao can figure out his messages at a glance no matter what time it is, which means either something has annoyed him since they last spoke or Natsuya's message woke him up. 

_ sorry for waking you up,  _ Natsuya types. Then he stalls, rolling over in the futon. He gets being attracted, it's not a big deal. He just doesn't know why he's so relaxed in Yamazaki's presence. Yamazaki has been out of the idol scene for a few years now, just doing bit parts in dramas here and there. Acting isn't really his strong suit, but the directors like the way he looks in the back of a scene. Natsuya can understand why. But it doesn't change the fact that they haven't ever run in the same circles and that Yamazaki isn't even an idol any more— for now, anyway.

_ i bumped into yamazaki again,  _ he sends before he can think better of it.  _ remember i told you we met at the training camp for goros jrs _

_ Did you do anything?  _ is the immediate answer. 

_ i don't sleep with every hot person who crosses my path what the hell. besides he's younger than me _

_ Hmmm,  _ Nao's reply says, and then there's a sticker of a skeptical looking bird. Natsuya does not dignify this with a response (yet), instead dropping his head onto his pillow. He's telling the truth, anyway, no matter what Nao suspects. Maybe the curl of Yamazaki's mouth is more charming that it has any right being, and maybe he keeps thinking about the warmth of Yamazaki's hand around his, but that doesn't  _ mean  _ anything. Yamazaki just wanted someone to remind him he had a choice, and Natsuya just… happened to be there.

It doesn't mean anything that he's already thinking about what Yamazaki will look like onstage, how Natsuya might choreograph something for two instead of one, whether his upcoming album has the space for a special track. Whether Yamazaki is looking for a certain kind of someone to do it with him, the way Natsuya is.

He groans, and taps the button to voice call Nao.

"You are always right," he says, when the dial tone stops and Nao has picked up.

"How bad is it?" 

Natsuya takes comfort in the fact that Nao sounds as calm and unruffled as ever, and admits, "I told him about the Mikhail thing, and then I asked him to bet on a coin flip. I used _ the  _ _coin,_ Nao _. _ "

There is a short pause, during which Natsuya contemplates the drawbacks of his impulse-driven lifestyle. "Well," Nao says, eventually, "I'm going to assume his shoulder isn't a worry any more?" 

Natsuya's heart swells at the way Nao talks about Yamazaki's possible comeback with not a hint of resentment. Natsuya isn't sure if he'd be able to do the same. "Yeah," he answers. "He was saying he'd need a surgery, but I think he has good chances. Did you know he's Matsuoka's best friend?"

"Oh," Nao says, in an enlightened tone, "that's where the duet with Matsuoka thing came from. For the record, since Yamazaki is currently unattached to any agency, you could skip the convoluted plan I'm sure you haven't thought up."

Natsuya wants to protest that it wasn't  _ really  _ convoluted, but Nao would just  _ know, _ like he always does, so he gives it up as a bad job. 

"Do you think I should challenge him to a dance-off," Natsuya wonders.

"Natsuya," says Nao, very kindly, "I think sometimes just talking is fine."

 

* * *

 

In Natsuya's defense, he did  _ start  _ with talking. Only Yamazaki got this look in his eyes and they were in the auditorium anyway and the stage was right there so— well, anyway, it wasn't his fault. He'll swear it to anyone except Nao.

Usually he'd want to say something around now, tease his opponent a little bit, but he's too fixated on the way Yamazaki moves like he hasn't had a three-year gap in dancing, like this is just par for the course, like there's an opening in between the sharp slices of his arms and turn of his hips that's just waiting for someone to—

"Hey," Natsuya breathes, sliding into the space like it was made for him. Yamazaki doesn't even miss a beat, and neither does Natsuya, and then they're moving together as if they'd choreographed it. Natsuya flings his arm out and Yamazaki goes; he pulls it back in and Yamazaki follows, and then it's Yamazaki's turn to lead, and Natsuya is burning up with how much he  _ wants  _ this.

"Kirishima-san," says Yamazaki, when the track they're playing hits a half-time section and Natsuya has his knee hooked around Yamazaki's. 

"Yeah," says Natsuya. Yamazaki's hand is on Natsuya's hip, and his thumb slides under the hem of Natsuya's t-shirt, chasing a bead of sweat. They are so close, and both a little drunk on adrenaline, wrapped in heat and the knowledge that they  _ have  _ something.

"Did you really ask Rin to release a single with you," Yamazaki asks, and the unexpected question makes Natsuya throw his head back in loud laughter. Yamazaki's fingers tighten, but Natsuya already heard the amusement in his voice.

"I was trying to get to you," Natsuya explains, in a tone that suggests that should have been obvious, and Yamazaki pulls him all the way around so that they're facing each other, still breathing a little too hard from exertion. The track goes back to double time, but neither of them are paying attention to it any more.

"I was thinking of making a comeback as a solo artiste," Yamazaki says, hesitantly. "But I could—"

"Hey," Natsuya cuts him off, before they can even think about having that kind of conversation. Yamazaki shouldn't ever try to  _ defer. _ "You want to flip a coin again?" He smirks at Yamazaki, who pauses, then grins blindingly bright.

"No," he says, looking Natsuya in the eye, the most confident Natsuya's ever seen him, "because in the end, it's up to me, right?"

"Don't forget it," Natsuya says, messing up Yamazaki's hair, thinking  _ I could stop running, for you.  _


End file.
